Pre-primary
Humanities and Social Sciences Support Materials
Assessment Principle 5
Assessment should lead to informative reporting
Geography snapshot: My special place
Humanities and Social Sciences/Knowledge and understanding/Geography/People live in places and Skills/Communicating and reflecting
| Content Description |
|---|
The reasons some places are special to people and how they can be looked after, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ places of significance Share observations and ideas, using everyday language (e.g. oral retell, drawing, role-play) Reflect on learning (e.g. drawings, discussions) |
Nature of the assessment
Conference/teacher interview
Purposes of the assessment
To assess students’ understanding of the content, sharing their ideas and reflections through oral retell
Stage in the Teaching sequence
At the end of the teaching cycle – summative assessment
Background learning
Students have:
- shared photos of a special place (e.g. a playground, a sporting field, a leisure centre, classroom, holiday location), discussing what makes it special to them
- created Y-charts on what that place looks like, feels like and sounds like
- explored features of their school and identified the features that make those areas special
- discussed what happens if people do not look after these places and how we can work to care for our special places
- taken photos of students caring for special places within the school (e.g. tidying the class library, picking up rubbish in the playground, ensuring play spaces are looked after)
- with assistance, created posters using the photos and teacher-scribed information about how they can care for the special places in their school.
Assessment task
The teacher sat with each student, and gave them their ‘special place’ photo, Y-chart and poster to look at. The teacher asked the students:
- Why is this a special place?
- Does everyone have the same special place?
- What makes your place special for you?
- How can you look after your special place?
- What would happen if you didn’t look after your special place?
Assessment process
The teacher made notes of each student’s understanding of the concept of place, how places had different significance for different people, and how to care for special places.
Using the information
The teacher used the interviews to determine students’ conceptual understanding of place, and that people have special places which need to be looked after. She used her observations to guide further lesson planning and to inform end of semester reporting.